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Ah.
“Why do you ask?”
“To know what you plan to do here, man.”
I gape in shock for a moment. “Are you seriously lecturing me on how to behave with women? You?”
“Well, this is the first woman I owe my ass to, and twice over, so I’ve grown pretty fond of her.”
“Then you don’t have to worry. My intentions are nothing but honorable.”
Archie doesn’t look convinced. “So you’ve already had the talk?”
“What talk?”
“Buddy, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but in three hours”—he taps his watch for emphasis—“you’re on a flight to San Francisco and she’s heading back to LA. Have you guys discussed the logistics of the long-distance relationship scenario?”
“No, but we’re cool. Winter is cool. We haven’t figured out the details yet, but—”
“Have you talked about it, like, at all?”
“Not exactly. But—”
“And she’s okay with it?”
“She must be; she hasn’t brought the topic up once.”
“And why haven’t you?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t come up.” Enough with the grilling. “Would you back off on the third degree and chill?”
“Yeah, man, all right. Just one last piece of advice…”
“Yeah?”
“If you love her… tell her before she boards that plane.”
* * *
The discussion with Archie leaves me pensive. The slight tension between us lingers in the confined cab ride to the airport. So we don’t talk. I’m too busy introspecting.
Am I falling short with Winter? Does she expect some grand gesture or something from me? How are we going to say goodbye? My original plan was to surprise her in LA as soon as I was done giving my reports to the university and foundation boards, so I’ve kept my intentions quiet. Has she taken my silence as a sign that I don’t care? Surely not. She must know I’m serious about us.
She must.
Winter, too, is quiet. She seems to be lost in her own thoughts, staring out the window at the Bangkok skyline with a faraway look, like she’s not taking in anything she’s seeing.
Mmm. Maybe Archie had a point.
The silent ride to Suvarnabhumi Airport takes slightly over an hour, and, as Winter predicted, we’re tight for time, especially her, since her flight leaves forty-five minutes earlier than ours.
All business-like, the three of us enter the airport and split right away to drop off our luggage at our respective check-in booths. The lines are similar in length, and we all get our boarding passes at the same time.
We regroup shortly afterward in front of the security check gates.
Winter looks up at me with a strained smile. “So I guess this is goodbye,” she says. “I should be hurrying; my plane will start boarding soon.”
Tension marks her features, and, with Archie’s warning ringing loud and clear in my ears, I begin to wonder if I should really tell her I love her.
